A member of Derry rail lobby group, Into the West, has said criticism of Translink's plans for the Waterside train station in the satirical magazine, Private Eye, should be 'a source of embarrassment' to them.
Eamonn McCann from Into the West said: "It should be a source of embarrassment to Translink that its plan for the Waterside station has been included by Private Eye in its feature, 'Nooks and Corners of the New Barbarism'.
"The magazine warns in its current issue that, while two bombing attacks in the 1970s failed to destroy the building, 'A refurbishment by public transport firm Translink may yet finish the job'.
"The threat to the historic station has caused dismay and bewilderment to many in Derry and farther afield. Into The West again calls on Translink to sit down with other interested parties to work out a way forward.
"Translink’s flat refusal to discuss any alternative reveals an arrogance which should have no place in a public body. It also exposes the blindness of Translink to the historical and cultural significance of the station.
"So far, Translink’s response to all objections is to repeat the mantra that funding will be lost if the council doesn’t simply rubber-stamp its proposal. But it is Translink which has dragged its heels.
"It took a vigorous campaign to persuade the company to buy the historic building in the first place. As local media have recorded, we then stayed on the case, pressing for progress, protesting about delays.
"Now Translink is using delay as an excuse for digging in its heels. The company insists that its preference is a done deal - even before it passes through council planning. Translink apparently believes, that Derry councillors can be taken for granted,
"We won’t allow trains to enter the station, says Translink. We won’t allow access to the banks of the Foyle: that’s for parked cars. Everybody else can say what they like - our mind’s made up and we won't change.
"But why should Derry accept second-best? Have we not done enough of that in the past?
"All over the world, great cities have been bringing rail stations back to life, so they reflect the history and match the ambitions of citizens looking to the future - Grand Central in New York, St. Pancras in London, Gare de Lyons in Paris. The positive economic impact of imaginative plans of this sort has been noted everywhere.
"Are these places too grand for us to aspire to emulate? Why so? Derry was a city when some of these places were swamps. We expect the best.
"We assert that if elected representatives stood together with other interested parties to demand the facility that Derry deserves, the funding issue will not be insurmountable. As we all know, road schemes fall behind all the time.
"That doesn’t mean they are automatically abandoned. The dignity of Derry demands that we don't say, 'Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir' and humbly accept whatever is held out to us."
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